Rep Power??? PLEASE HELP!!!

[Sweetseraph]

My rep points are all from off-topic discussions in the chit-chat forum. I don't have any snakes for sale or trade, but in this case, my rep wouldn't help you. I've never visited Fauna, but it appears stuff is done differently here.

 

[Reptileman81]

So rep power is good for good comments about one person and trade rating points is good about the business side of one person. So we could have both. Once again like I said what could it really hurt to have both.

 

[TandJ]

Rep Power is over rated... Don't take it at face value, and the same goes for the number of posts.. There are and have been people here, that have way more posts than I ever had within their first three monthes.. Just because the Rep Power is High and just because the Post numbers are high, doesn't really mean they mean anything of value...


Regards.. Tim of T and J

 

[luckycharm318]

So rep power is good for good comments about one person and trade rating points is good about the business side of one person. So we could have both. Once again like I said what could it really hurt to have both.

Trade rating points are on Fauna. Rep power is on CS.com.
Fauna is a classifieds forum where people are mostly interested in buying/selling animals.
CS.com is more of a social/discussion forum about Corns. Some people buy/sell Corns here, some people don't. Trade rating points aren't really necessary here IMO.

 

[bekers71]

I know things are different here. Just thought that with a trade rating like on fauna you have better idea if you are dealing with a scam artist. Especially in a trade. Which I also know is not done here as much as fauna. Trading that is! Just thought it would be a nice tool to have. I mean what could it really hurt if we had it. I dont see that many people on fauna leaving negative trade rating for stupid stuff not business related.

Trading is done here much more often than you may think. It's just not done as out in the open as on Fauna. If you really are that worried about scam artist, always check the BOI ahead of time. Honestly, in the time I've been on this forum I've only heard of maybe 2 people that did others wrong on business. That's pretty dang good considering the number of members here.

In this business/hobby, there is a lot of 'blind trust' that has to be given. That goes for trades and sales. Stay in it long enough and you just know, instinctively most the time and by reading who you can and can't trust. I've been screwed over once, not by some one on this site, and I learned to do that one thing differently. Live and learn.

 

[Reptileman81]

So pretty much nothing I say is going to get any of you to see that it would not be a bad thing to have the trade rating on here. Yes this is mostly a discussion site which is why we are here right now. But there is sales and trades done here. What would it really hurt to have a trade rating here as well. All it could do is help. Help to know who to trust. Help peoples respect here and there business when others know that you are a good business person and everyone you have dealt with is satisfied or unsatisfied. I just think it would really help more then it could ever hurt.

 

[kathylove]

I don't see that it could HURT anything at all...

I think part of the reason that people here aren't interested is because we might feel we are more of a "neighborhood community" here, and business is just a kind of sideline between friends here. That is not always the case, of course. But I should mention that when somebody calls me up for some kind of corns I don't have, and I don't know who does, I often tell them that they are unlikely to go wrong just to check out the CS ads and buy from whomever is posting. Of course, I tell them to check the BOI just to be sure. But this community is close enough to each other that if somebody started acting unethically here (selling bad animals or earning themselves a bad reputation for some reason), I feel that peer pressure would likely push them to behave better, or convince them to move on. I don't think that is true of many other sites.

Maybe some of the resistance to the trader point system is that people feel it would make this site more business like instead of feeling like a community "neighborhood".

It wouldn't matter to me one way or the other. It is not something I would use, but not something that would bother me, either.

 

[gelshark]

i'll start tracking your trade rating
anyone that wants to know reptileman81's trade rating please let me know
anyone that wants to add to or subtract from reptileman's trade rating also let me know
if you have an inquiry about someone else's trade rating please let me know and i will do an investigation for you
if anyone else would like the same service please let me know

 

[Hallie]

I think part of the reason that people here aren't interested is because we might feel we are more of a "neighborhood community" here, and business is just a kind of sideline between friends here. That is not always the case, of course. But I should mention that when somebody calls me up for some kind of corns I don't have, and I don't know who does, I often tell them that they are unlikely to go wrong just to check out the CS ads and buy from whomever is posting. Of course, I tell them to check the BOI just to be sure. But this community is close enough to each other that if somebody started acting unethically here (selling bad animals or earning themselves a bad reputation for some reason), I feel that peer pressure would likely push them to behave better, or convince them to move on. I don't think that is true of man other sites.

Maybe some of the resistance to the trader point system is that people feel it would make this site more business like instead of feeling like a community "neighborhood".

It wouldn't matter to me one way or the other. It is not something I would use, but not something that would bother me, either.

Darn near exactly what I was going to say, Kathy....but you always say things much more eloquently than I can.

 

[wade]

I agree with Kathy. I don't see a problem with it but don't feel a need for it. For the most part the people here are my friends. I don't get that feeling on other sites. Fauna included. Maybe I haven't spent enough time there.

I posted on the BOI a week or two ago. It was my first time and I posted a bad report on someone. Tell you the truth, I felt terrible about it and doubt that I will ever do it again. It just isn't in my nature to bad mouth people. If trader points were available here, I would give good points to good people, I doubt I would use the bad points.

 

[Susan]

Trader ratings on Fauna isn't all you make it out to be, especially if no one uses it. I have a whopping rating of 3 on Fauna and all of them were from sales done over 4 years ago. Nothing from you yet, Josh.

And you also have to watch the BOI and actually read the posts. I have one BOI listing over there, and it is a good one, but the thread title is "Who are the bad guys I shouldn't deal with?". The thread was started way back in 2002, and I was mentioned as one of the Good Guys to deal with by someone I did alot of business with back then, but if you just glance at the title, you get the impression I'm a Bad Guy.

 

[Lucille]

What would it really hurt to have a trade rating here as well. All it could do is help. .

Disagree.

Fauna is a centralized location and the trader ratings and the BOI are well known throughout the US (and I'm sure, abroad) as a go-to place to check out the reps of prospective buyers/sellers.

If an important rating was placed here, and people did not know to come here but rather went to Fauna with its more established rating system, they might miss an important piece of info and as a result might make an ill advised purchase.

 

[ghosthousecorns]

I don't see the harm in it and personally think it might be great to do but Kathy kind of explained pretty well why other people might not.
A thought- what if it could just be in the profile page that you get when you click on someone's name, and not displayed every time someone makes a post. Then if you were considering doing business with a person you could click on their name and find out if other members had any dealings with them instead of going to fauna. Plus I have sold a lot of cornsnakes to members of here and none of them have ever gone over to fauna to post about the good transaction on BOI - perhaps if we had such a system on out own site it would be used more- people might be more motivated to give you a good trader rating at our home here than go over to fauna and start a post there.

 

[wade]

Dean 0, Roy Munson started a good guy thread about me last week. I sincerely appreciated that but in all the years I have been in this business that is the first time I have had any one comment on my business, good or bad. I don't have any mentions on the BOI. Any rating system will only be as good as the people who use it. I wonder if the current BOI couldn't be pumped up some how so that it was a registry of sorts that contained more names. I have done several searches there and usually come up empty. That basically tells me that the person I am investigating has never made any of the BOI regulars mad.

 

[ghosthousecorns]

Heck if Susan only has 3 trader points from 4 years ago... How many people here that have bought cornsnakes from other members have bothered with BOI? Would you have made a post if there was a place for it here on cs?
I will probably be in the minority but having some kind of system for this here on cs really doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

 

[Jay@PJCReptiles]

What would it really hurt to have a trade rating here as well. All it could do is help.

Why do we actually need one here at CS.com? First and foremost this is a discussion forum that just so happens to allow contributing members to sell their animals, not the other way around. If you have a question or concern about who you are dealing with that is what the B.O.I. is attended for. The CS.com community is very tight knit and polices itself very well. If someone were to post here with negative intensions by making bad threads, personally attacking other members or posting sale ads and having questionable business ethics (scams, unhealthy animals, false advertisement, etc...) they would be weeded out very quickly. This has been proven as fact on more then one occasion. Here at CS.com everyone seems to have each others back when it comes to issues like this. I feel adding a "trader rating" feature here at CS.com is unwarranted and would end up costing the Admin extra time and money to have something like this implemented. Quite frankly I feel it would be redundant seeing how we have this information only a mouse click away (B.O.I.). In other words...... "If it aint broke, don't fix it."
Why do things like "Rep Points" and "Trader Rating" here at CS.com mean so much to you? "Rep Points" are somewhat over rated. They were intended so people could commend other members for insightful or intelligent posts. Most of the time "Rep Points" are dolled out on trivial things such as "Nice Snake" or "Great Picture" and seem to accumulate quickly through the "buddy" system. Rich has had to make an adjustment/modification as to how the "Rep Points" are passed out due to this. There are members here with high rep points that I talk to, deal with and buy from all the time while there are others with high rep points that I haven't dealt/interacted with and it has nothing to do with rep points. On the other hand there are members/breeders here with low rep points that I wouldn't hesitate to purchase from or hang on every word in a post they make because it is insightful and educational.
Why are you always trying to change things when they do not need to be? You are the same person who freaked out when you thought being a contributing member would get you into the Holy Land of the "Insiders Club" and when you found out it wasn't what you thought it should be you had a grievance as to why you just paid $25.00 just to see what was there. Then you make a negative post as to what YOU thought the "Insiders Club" should be and contain. You make posts asking what people think about changing certain things here and when the replies you get do not agree with you, you keep pushing the issue in a negative manner. I just feel you don't understand how things work around here. Things like this can be compared to someone getting a new job and telling his new boss what HE is going to do. The wheels of CS.com have been set into motion a long time ago with basically the same rules and regulations from day one. Everything works here because it is such a tight knit community that looks out for itself, unlike A LOT of other forum/discussion sites that focus on this business/hobby. If you don't like the way things are done here, you can certainly go start your own forum and implement any tools or features that meet your satisfaction. Please understand that this is not a personal attack. I am only trying to say that this is not how things are done here at CS.com. This community is filled with so many great, intelligent, insightful breeders/owners for a reason and I am proud to be part of it. There aren't too many sites out there that can compare to CS.com when it comes to quality and number of the member base. The number of intelligent and informative threads/posts. Access to the BEST breeders in the business that specialize in Corn snakes and the TOP QUALITY animals they produce. The laid back atmosphere where you can post almost anything you want as long as it it posted in the correct category and is done so in a respectful manner. To me, it comes off that you are nagging or complaining about this site. Stop focusing on trying to change the way things are done here and contribute in a more positive manner. If you do, you will actually get to reap the benefits of that $25.00 membership you paid for.

Jay

 

[bekers71]

Very well put Jay. You must have had your coffee this morning to think that clearly. oke:

 

[Lucille]

Jay,
The system says I can't rep you again so soon but you deserve it.
Your post was smokin'.:cheers:

 

[chris68]

Jay just said it best...Rep points, "trader ratings", etc. are not what this site has ever really been about...I mean, if you cant "Google" are person dealing in something you are interested in acquiring then they just don't have it...Spend enough time researching, reading other people posts (and not commenting...), having an open mind to other, maybe not so...agreeabletothissitesowner...websites with relevant animals...really learning how the hobby as a whole works and interplays thru individuals...You don't need "Good Guy Certifications" or "ACR registrations" to determine your sense of worth to the hobby...They 're nice, and do help as a point of reference as to an individual "business-person"s product and delivery (lol)...I've been on this (Richs) and others pretty much from the get-go, and they are great places to L E A R N...just dont let all the neat "doodads" and "awards" get in the way of learning :*)...

 

[wade]

I’ll tell you one more thing. I am about sick and tired of people bashing those with high rep points. You make it sound like there is something wrong with having rep points. I feel reluctant to post for fear some one may give me rep and compound the problem.

There are some really fine people here with a high rep count. Some of the finest people I know. In fact I think they are the elite people of the planet. They should be given thick soled shoes so that they stand taller than the other around them.

I would like to also point out that I posted some pictures of new snakes last week and although many nice people made nice comments, not one person gave me rep for those pictures. You know who you are.

I think the trick is to not give out good information, don’t be helpful, and for heavens sake don’t be insightful. Don’t post, just lurk. When you do post, be offensive, obnoxious, incorrect, and use bad grammar. Spell check is not your friend.